| Notes |
- Ebenezer was born in Vermont and as a young child immigrated to Canada with his parents to London Township. The family story had been that he went west as a young man and was never heard from again, presumably killed.
Ruth Ann Marr applied to the Bureau of Pensions after her second husband William F Teachout died since he had been in the Army. She had to prove that her first husband Ebenezer Bisbee was dead in order to show she was the legal widow of Teachout. After 15 years her application for pension was denied because she couldn't provide proof. Her pension file from NARA in Washington contains several affidavits and depositions about Ebenezer.
Affidavit of Ruth 1887
"He went to California in 1856. I received a letter from him about 2 years later, in which he stated that he intended to start home at once. I waited a long time for him but he did not come. I then wrote to the Post Master where he received his mail at to his whereabouts and the P.M. informed me that he had been murdered. I know nothing to the contrary and do not know of any evidence I could prove to substantiate his death"
Affidavit of Ruth's sister Almira Cox 1894
"He left Canada and went to the State of California in the United States of America where he died in the year 1859. I know of the death of the said E.A. Bisbee by reading a letter sent from California positively stating the fact of his death"
Deposition of brother Reuben Bisbee at Marvin, County of Phillips state of Kansas May 10,1895
""..went to California sometime in the "fifties" I remember this brother and I was about 14 years old when he left home. I do not remember that my father ever received but one letter from him after he went to California. I do not remember anything that my brother may have written to my father. We could not hear anything from my brother so my father wrote the postmaster at San Juan Cal. I think-- and as I now remember, the postmaster wrote father that my brother and two other men names unknown- were making or had been making about $1000 a day a piece out of a mine, that they had sold out the mine for a large "stake' & had gone farther north. If my memory serves me right my mother and father thought he was drowned in the ocean on a vessel which sailed from San Francisco, Cal., and which was lost at sea....."
Deposition of sister Betsy C. Hewitt of Norton Kansas near Devizes May 6 1 895:
" I remember that he afterwards went to California about 5 years after his marriage. My father corresponded with him and then after a time my father after receiving no answer from him, he wrote to the postmaster and received word that my brother was sick. My father then wrote to my brother 2 or 3 times and the letters were returned uncalled for. My father then wrote to the post master again and the postmaster replied that the party with whom my brother was staying and working with had moved away, he did not know where and that neither he or my brother came there for any more mail. My father then sent the postmaster an advertisement for my brother and had it published in the California paper but we never received any answer from this advertisement. My father believed at the time that my brother E.A. Bisbee the husband of the above claimant was dead, and he never heard any word from him after the postmaster at San Juan Cal wrote us that he was sick. I never heard that my brother was murdered."
Deposition of Charles W. Marr, brother of Ruth Ann, at Geneva, County of Fillimore Nebraska May 28 1895:
" I am a brother of the claimant Ruth A. Teachout She married E. A. Bisbee sometime in the forties I think. I was well acquainted with him up to the time he went to California along about 1856 if I mistake not. My sister got a paper from California stating that Bisbee was dead. I have forgotten the name of the paper. The P.M. sent the paper to her. I read the article which stated that Bisbee was fixing to return home- My understanding was that he got killed.-- My memory is very poor. He lost his life in some way according to the newspaper report but I can not tell how it was. Before that he had written home that he calculated to come home I saw that letter. "
Deposition of Arthur H. Sherman , neighbor of Marr's in Michigan June 13 1895:
"... her maiden name was Marr. When she came here her name was Bisbee. Her father told me that her husband Bisbee got in debt and ran away. It seems as though they said he went to California. It seems as though there was some talk about a boat being lost & that he was supposed to be on it but there was no proof of that. No I do not remember that they claimed to have received any papers or letters stating what had become of him. Her father came back here after they all went out west and lived with me 8 or 9 months and he always told me that said Bisbee got him to endorse notes with him & it seems to me that it turned out that Bisbee had forged and run away. It is my impression that he ran away to escape trial. Mr. Marr told me he was his bondsman & that is why Mr. Marr left Canada."
Deposition of John W. Martin, neighbor of Marrs in Michigan June 12 1895:
"She lived with her father's family before she married Teachout. I didn't know as to what became of her husband Mr. Bisbee. From her brothers and her son I got the idea that he (Bisbee) was a gambler & left her in Canada. He never came here with them......Everything I heard about him led me to think he was a rascal."
Deposition of Ruth Ann Teachout , Battle Creek Madison County, Nebraska April 19 1895:
"I had been married to E.A. Bisbee before I married W.F. Teachout. I married Bisbee in Dec 1852 at New London, Canada, he was raised right there in New London his folks were all living there then his brother James is in New London, Canada, his brother John Henry, Geo and Reuben are in Kansas at Norton or Horton in Southwestern, Kas. I have it right now it was Norton, Norton, Kas., I lived with Bisbee four or five years when he went to California and went to work in the mines He went there about 1856. I used to get letters every little while from him for two years these letters were burned with my other papers, the last letter that I got from stated that he was coming home in Feb., he did not come and I wrote to the P.M at San Juan Cali and he wrote back that my husband had been murdered with two other men. I do not remember the name of the P.M.... .. Chas Marr got a paper with an account of my husband's death in it...." [5]
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1827 - Abt 1858 (31 years)
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: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
